


Inspiration

by quantumducky



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, just pure fluff you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 15:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14358513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumducky/pseuds/quantumducky
Summary: Roman is having writer's block with a romantic scene, but Patton helps him get inspired.





	Inspiration

Roman sighed, letting his head fall forward onto the pages of his notebook with a soft  _ thunk. _  He didn’t need to worry about smudging the ink, because he hadn’t written a single word in twenty minutes.  For whatever reason, this scene- the protagonist’s heartfelt, poetic confession to his true love- simply  _ refused _ to come together in his head.  Of all the things to be struggling with.  Romance was his thing, this should have been easy for him.  Well, he wasn’t going to be defeated by writer’s block. He would just have to keep trying until something clicked.

He sat up again with a groan, propping his chin on his hand, and dipped his pen into the inkwell.  (Impractical? Maybe. Aesthetic as heck? Definitely.) Closing his eyes for a moment, he tried to get into the mood he needed for the story and out of the one he currently had.  He, Roman, felt like crumpling all his papers up and throwing them across the room, and that was  _ not _ the feeling he wanted to come across in his main character.  He cracked his eyes open just enough to make sure he wasn’t slanting his lines and tried to write without thinking too hard, picturing the scene in his head but struggling to bring it into focus.

A knock at his door startled him, and a word trailed off into a long scribble.  He gave the page an annoyed look, deleting the mistake and everything he’d just written with one wave of his hand.  None of it had been any good anyway, just a bunch of stiff, insincere-sounding clichés. At least he wasn’t losing anything by being interrupted.  “Coming,” he shouted, crossing the room to open the door.

Patton was in the hall with a tray balanced in one hand.  Roman’s bad mood lifted slightly just from seeing him. “You didn’t come out for lunch,” he said, tone gentle but pointed, “so I thought I’d bring you something.”

Roman smacked his forehead lightly.  “It completely slipped my mind, I’m sorry- do come in,” he said, stepping back out of the doorway and conjuring a table to set the tray on.  He knew Patton liked them to all eat together as a family, but he tended to get caught up in whatever he was working on and forget he needed to eat at  _ all. _  It was a bad habit he was aware of, but not one he was trying very hard to break.

“I know, you lose track of time,” Patton said, sitting down at the table.  “You don’t have to apologize, I just wanna make sure you’re taking care of yourself!”

Roman sat across from him and had to smile, looking properly at the contents of the tray.  Patton had brought him a PB&J with the crust cut off, and tea to go with it. Had anyone else been around, he might have pointed out that he wasn’t a little kid, but… it was a perfectly good type of sandwich, and he honestly  _ didn’t _ like bread crust.  It was very Patton, but also genuinely thoughtful.  Which, in itself, was also very Patton.

“Roman?  You okay?”  Roman blinked, realizing he’d been just looking at the sandwich for about twenty seconds.  He should probably actually… y’know, eat it now.

“Oh!  Yes, I’m fine.  I was just thinking that it was… nice of you to come check on me.”

Patton grinned, and Roman had to take a long sip of tea to pretend it didn’t absolutely melt him.  “Aw, it’s nothing.” He looked around the room, eyes landing on the desk. “Sooo, what are you working on?”

“Oh, it’s this… story.  It’s just this  _ one scene _ won’t  _ freakin’ cooperate,” _ Roman complained through a mouthful of peanut butter.

“Oh, that’s too bad!”  Patton frowned. “Do you want to tell me about it and see if that helps?”

“I suppose it’s worth a try… no, hold, on, I have an even  _ better _ idea!”  He stood and snapped his fingers, transforming his room into a beautiful palace garden at sunset.  “I can  _ show _ you.”

Patton, now seated on a bench under a flower-covered arched trellis, took in his new surroundings with wide eyes.  “Oh my gosh, this is so pretty!”

Roman beamed.  “I’ve been working on getting it right.  Now, if you don’t mind standing in for the love interest- don’t worry, all you have to do right now is sit right there and look pretty, you’re a natural- I’ll try and show you the part that’s been giving me trouble.”

Patton nodded, biting his lip to prevent a self-conscious giggle from escaping.  He needed to be a serious actor and help Roman figure out his scene, not get flustered at every little implied compliment!

Roman went a little way down the path and turned around to look as if he’d just come from that direction.  “Alright, so if I’m the main character, I’m walking down this path and find my true love- that’s you, Patton- enjoying the warm summer evening in the garden, perfectly framed by flowers.  And I rush up to you, because I’ve been hoping to see you all day, and…”

He came to a stop, his last few steps to reach the bench slow and measured as if dancing.  “And when I reach you,” he said softly so as to preserve the mood, taking Patton’s hand and pulling him to his feet, “I finally tell you how I truly feel after eight chapters of pining.  I just can’t seem to work out the right thing to say, and everything I’ve tried out has sounded… flat.”

Patton blinked.  Right. The… thing he was writing.  The entire reason they were here. Focus.  “Flat? How do you mean?”

“Well, like…”  He ran a hand through his hair, recalling some of the rejected lines, and cleared his throat.  He plucked a flower from the trellis and presented it smoothly to Patton. “Had this garden the power of sight it should wilt as you passed, knowing even its finest beauty would ever pale in comparison to yours, my love.”  He held the pose, waiting for a reaction.

Patton accepted the flower automatically and didn’t seem to know what to say.  “Oh,” he managed after a few seconds.

“I know, right, that’s not even  _ anything,” _ Roman said, throwing his hands up in defeat and completely missing the blush rising on the other side’s face.

“Sure it is,” Patton protested.  “It was very, uh, flowery.” He winked to make it clear that the pun was intended, and Roman sighed, smiling at it despite himself.  “I think I know what you mean, though. It’s sort of the kinda thing you could say to anybody, isn’t it?”

“Yes, exactly.  I just don’t know how to make it  _ genuine.” _

Patton frowned and tilted his head, which, incidentally, made the light of the setting sun hit his face  _ just so _ and lend a soft shine to his eyes.  “Well, maybe it doesn’t have to be so fancy,” he suggested.  “Like maybe your character is just being honest about how they feel and not trying to impress the person.”

Yes, yes, that was a good point.  He’d been too focused on what the character should be  _ saying _ and not enough on what he was  _ thinking, _ of course, that was it- and now that he was thinking about it from that perspective… His eyes lit up.

“Finally, inspiration has returned to me!”  Roman spun Patton around in celebration, and when they stopped they were back in his normal room.  “I have to write this down right now in case I lose it, talk later, thanks for all your help!”

Patton found himself out in the hallway.  Well, apparently he’d helped, that was good.  And he did get Roman to eat something, which was the reason he’d come here in the first place, so that was also good.  He was disappointed by how abruptly their visit had ended, though, even though he knew Roman had a good reason. He’d liked the garden… and, admittedly, the attention, even though it was acting and not real.  But oh well, there would be other times to talk to him. He wasn’t  _ always _ busy, just most of the time.  He headed back to his own room to find something to do himself.

Roman was elated to have recovered the use of his words.  He wrote down the lines he’d thought of so fast they were almost too messy to read, then a few more sentences that flowed naturally from there, and then… it stopped.  Gone  _ again, _ just when the characters were about to have their first kiss.  Why on earth was he so terrible at this today? He’d had it a moment ago, so what was different now?  He thought about it, and then thought about it more, and then backed off and thought about it  _ less. _  ...Oh.  He jumped up out of his chair, realizing a few different things at once.

Patton was sitting on his bed looking at paint-mixing videos on his phone, and then suddenly someone was banging on his door like the world was ending.  “Is something wrong?” he called on his way over there, throwing it open. It was Roman. “What happened to writing down your sudden inspiration?”

Roman bounced nervously back and forth on his feet.  “I may have been wrong about it… would you… accompany me one more time?”  That wasn’t really an answer, but Patton followed him back to his room anyway.  He snapped them back into the garden.

“Oh, need me to help with your scene again?”

“Something like that.”

Patton started to go sit on the bench again, but Roman caught his hand, and when he turned to ask what he  _ should _ do this time he took the other one, too, pulling him toward him.

“Ro, what--”

“Patton,” he said softly, “I was wrong.  I thought you helped me find the inspiration I lost, but… when you left, it went with you.  You were-  _ you are _ my inspiration.”

“Oh,” Patton breathed, afraid to say anything in case it broke this moment they were having.

Roman swallowed.  He would have liked a  _ bit _ more of a reaction, just to confirm he wasn’t about to horribly embarrass himself.  He took a deep breath, hoping to slow his racing heart, and drew Patton closer by one hand while letting go of the other to gently cup the side of his face.  “Is this okay?” he whispered. “If you don’t want me to--”

Patton stared at him and blurted out, “I think I’m in love with you.”  He looked away for a second, but only a second, and then locked his gaze on Roman again, eyes open and earnest and so hopeful, blushing fiercely.

“Oh.”  Roman felt lightheaded.  He leaned forward almost involuntarily, still hesitant, and Patton grabbed his sash and tugged him the rest of the way.

The kiss wasn’t very long, or even very high-quality- Patton’s glasses were getting in the way, and they probably should have let go of each other’s hands at some point- but that wasn’t really the important part.  The important part was right after, when they broke apart and leaned their foreheads together, laughing breathlessly, and collected themselves and made eye contact and started laughing again, and it took them almost a minute to realize the garden had disappeared at some point without anyone paying attention to keeping it there.

“You know, I had a whole speech,” Roman said.  “You didn’t let me use it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  Want me to leave and come back so you can start over?”

“No, no, the moment’s passed.  Your version was better anyway.  Uh- me too, by the way.”

Patton, quite frankly, couldn’t remember anything that had happened before the kiss.  “What?”

“I’m… in love with you too.”

Patton laughed lightly and shook his head.  “I kinda picked up on that.”

“Oh.  Right.”

“So, how’s your inspiration?”

Roman looked at him and answered honestly, “Perfect.”  He glanced at his desk, then turned back to Patton. “But I think the writing can wait, don’t you?”

Patton launched himself at him, making them both fall onto the bed as he peppered Roman’s face with kisses.  His glasses poked Roman in the eye once, but he wasn’t complaining. “Yes, I think it had better,” he agreed, grinning.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote most of this in the middle of the night oops
> 
> follow me on tumblr if you want @do-your-socks-have-holes-in-them


End file.
